The Federation's Bad Company
by MAGNUM777
Summary: Preston Marlowe was very bored. One day he took a General's jeep out for a joyride. Boy did that put him in a lot of hot water. The Federation chucked him into Bravo One Charlie. Now five idiots charge blindly into enemy fire in hopes of gold and glory.
1. Welcome to Bad Company

__The Federation's Bad Company

Chapter 1

Welcome to Bad Company

* * *

><p><em>Dear Colin Marlowe<em>

_ Hey, little bro, you probably couldn't even recognize me right now, with my uniform and all. Just like dad, eh? Hey, don't tell mom about this, but I sort of messed up a bit. There was this thing with a jeep and well, I don't really want to get into it. Anyways, I'm off the hook, so there's not going to be any disciplinary action or anything like that. The thing is, I'm being transferred to B-Company. They call it Bad Company. But that could means lots of different things though. Anyways, I'm being transferred over there next week and I'll probably get to see some action right away. I'm looking forwards to meeting my new squad, doing my duty. So tell mom not to worry because I'm going to play it by the book and stay ought of trouble. This time._

_ Anyways, there's over a hundred thousand of us over there. It's not like I'm going to go off on some stupid adventure looking for gold treasure or anything. I'm not going to play the hero, not going to take on the Imperial Army on my own. I'm not going to discover some sort of massive secret. The army's a great big machine little bro and I'm just this tiny little cog. You're probably not going to be reading about me in the paper. Anyways, I hope to see you guys really soon._

_Yours truly, Preston Marlowe._

Welcome to the 222nd Army Battalion, to B-Company. Where they rake together all the leftovers and troublemakers deemed... _expendable_ by the army. They call it... Bad Company, a mismatched bunch of rejects placed to serve the Atlantic Federation as cannon fodder. My name is Preston Marlowe. I'm a healthy, 18 year old male from Iberia, my eyes are dark brown, as is my hair which is cut to my short but still long enough to be messy. But that's enough about my appearance. They could have thrown me in jail for what I did. But instead, they transferred me here. This... is my story.

"Private Preston Marlowe, reporting for duty, sir!" I salute a man whom I recognize as a sergeant. He has dark skin and look about thirty years old. He turns to face me and salutes in kind, but asks a question.

"You sure you in the right place?"

"I believe so, sir," I respond, he turns back towards the radio he is at with a young girl, maybe about sixteen years old with blonde pigtails, and listens in as two others are chattering away behind him. One is a squirrely looking fellow, maybe about twenty, with glasses and light brown hair. The other is a darcsen girl with long hair tied back in a ponytail and wearing a darcsen bandanna on her head. She looked to be in her early twenties. They were chattering about the death count or something. I tune them out.

"This is... B-Company... right?" the sergeant is still listening to the radio and takes a moment before turning to me again.

"Sure is," he confirms, "But you wanna cut out that sir, yes sir crap? I'm a sergeant, not the goddamn president."

"Ok, sorry sir!" I reply, leaning down to adjust my carbine and bring it up before realizing what I just said. "I mean, sergeant."

"Yeah whatever," he replies, lazily, turning to face the two chattering away in the back. "That one over there, his name is Sweetwater," he nods to the male who gives a quick wave back.

"Hey... welcome to the front lines," he says jokingly, coming closer.

"That's Haggard," the Sergeant continues as the darcsen girl wanders over too.

"Hey, how you doin'?" She asks, lifting her lance to rest against her shoulder. She leans in and sniffs, making me kind of uncomfortable. "You smell very clean."

"That's Michelle, our new radio girl, she came just a few days before you," He points to the blonde girl with the radio. She just nods, "She usually goes by Mikey." Another nod.

"And you can call me Sergeant Redford," he finishes, "Or just Sarge. We're all in this mess together now."

"Alright sarge..." I watch as Mikey picks up the radio and carries it with her and the four of them head over to a truck, "Do you know what squad I'm supposed to belong to?"

They ignore me and keep going so I look around awkwardly to see if anyone else was there.

"A new guy kinda smells like..." I hear Haggard say, "A brand new toy."

"Eh..." I hear Sweetwater reply to her, "I give you three to two he's dead by Friday."

"Sarge?" I ask awkwardly.

"You can ride with us," he replies, not even glancing back, "New guy."

"New guy?" I repeat my new nickname, "Ok..."

* * *

><p>We ride on the truck in relative silence, making it feel a little awkward until I ask how everyone was doing.<p>

"Me?" Sarge motions to himself, "I'm due to go home in three days, but you best get to know the others. Haggard over here? She's a natural born Demolition expert-"

"What?" she turns to face us, with an incredulous look on her face, "Nah, I just like it when stuff blows up, ehehe." She turns back to face the countryside.

"Yeah," Sweetwater comments, "And that's just fine as long as it's the enemy's stuff."

"And Sweetwater?" The Sarge interjects. "If you ever need someone to talk a hole in your head, he's got that covered."

"That's a cheap shot," Sweetwater replies, "I don't really talk that much."

"Shut up," Sarge orders as Mikey starts saying something.

"We're to move up to the front of the convoy and scout the terrain. They have orders for later but they'll get back to us with those."

"Ah check it out," Haggard points to some armored jeeps and light tanks rolling back to camp, "It's the Calvary."

"Isn't it amazing how we always go towards the fighting and they're always headed in the opposite direct-" Sweetwater says sarcastically but gets suddenly cut off by the sound of explosions, "I hope those are our guns."

"It's a beautiful sound in a way," Haggard smiles.

"It's an ambush!" Sarge shouts.

"Ah, typical!"

"It's about time we got some action! Look at the new guy, he's-!"

And then the world went dark.

* * *

><p>"Oh look, new guy's dead," I hear someone say. Am I really? And to think that I was planning on heading home after the war.<p>

"Already? I was just about to learn his name."

"I think it was probably Joe," the rough woman's voice must be Haggard's, "Usually is."

"His name's Preston," Sarge's gruff, male voice pops into my head, "Preston Marlowe. He's not dead, right soldier?"

I open my eyes and a wave of light and pain assault me. I'm in a ditch and the others are looking down at me. I nod, "Yeah, everything hurts but I think I'm fine."

"Hey, new guy," Sweetwater calls out. God that nickname is starting to bug me, "Get your ass over here."

I climb out of the ditch and Mikey hands me some painkillers. I say thanks and take them, washing the pills down with my canteen.

"Well, you sure don't smell so good anymore," Sweetwater comments on my appearance. My Federation uniform was muddy and I was bleeding a bit.

"Welcome to Bad Company."

* * *

><p>AN: Welcome to another crossover fic I'll never finish. This first chap is pretty much plagiarism of the first part of Battlefield: Bad Company but that'll change real soon. The Members of Bad Company get thrown into the second Europa War of Valkyrie Chronicles. What could possibly go wrong?<p> 


	2. Operation: First Day on the Job

The Federation's Bad Company

Operation: First Day on the Job

* * *

><p>"Get in the truck!" I hear Haggard shout. She slaps the door, telling us to hurry in. Mikey is in the back and Sarge gets in the front. Sweetwater and I join Mikey in the back as she hands the headset to Sarge.<p>

"We are to assault the artillery camp up on the ridge," he relays the orders. I see Haggard and Sweetwater nod in confirmation and I nod too.

When we get there, we are forced to get out of the truck due to the tank traps in the way. There's no sign of allies in the area. "Where are the others?" I ask, turning to Sarge.

"There are none, we go solo."

"Are you insane? Five guys against an entire artillery camp?" I hiss in a hushed voice to him as we approach the ridge.

"That's how it is," he just slaps a hand onto my helmet, "Now move up."

"Try not to die, new guy," Sweetwater grins at me. Haggard is already halfway up the ridge and Mikey was hanging out in the back with a sniper rifle.

Haggard throws a grenade and takes out the three imperials manning the machine gun nest, alerting the entire camp to out presence.

It's utter chaos for nearly five minutes straight. I lost count of how many times I nearly died. Between Haggard's habit of throwing explosives around everywhere and Sweetwater laying down machine gun fire, I almost thought I would have died from friendly fire before I died from enemies that were picked off by Mikey and the Sarge.

"Everyone alright!" Sarge shouts as the dust clears.

"Yup," Haggard chimes in.

"Never been better," Sweetwater remarks, "New guy and Mikey are fine too, right?"

"Yes," the two of us reply together. "You guys have to do this sort of thing all the time?" I ask, looking at Mikey.

"Don't look at me, I haven't been here all that long," she responds, heading up the hill.

"This sort of thing is normal for us in Bad Company," Sweetwater answers, "But you're off to a great start new guy. You survived. Good job with that."

We regroup by the artillery and Mikey lays down the radio again. She listens in as orders are relayed to Sarge.

"Yeah, the artillery is still intact, alright," he says before turning to face us, "We are to use the enemy guns and support Juno convoy by the bridge down below. Be advised, friendlies are in the area. Do you have any artillery training, Marlowe?"

"A little," I reply.

"Alright, you, Haggard, and I will control the artillery. Sweetwater and Mikey will keep watch on the path."

"I ain't gonna do it," Haggard refuses, crossing her arms, "I hit our guys, y'all gonna yell at me."

"Fine, Sweetwater will take your place," Sarge orders, "Take the machine gun nest Haggard. Let's go."

Mikey leaves the radio to Sarge before heading down with Sweetwater. Orders are relayed from the radio and Sarge barks them out. In a few minutes, we manage to take out the Imperial tanks from our position without hitting out own forces.

"All enemy vehicles neutralized, nice work Marlowe, Sweetwater," Sarge confirms, looking up from the radio, "Sweetwater, Mikey, get your asses over here!"

The pair wander over, Sweetwater has a red mark on his face and Mikey is giving him angry looks. I didn't need to be a genius to solve this mystery.

"Whoa, Sweets, what happened to your face?" Haggard asks. I suppose Haggard wasn't exactly the brightest Darcsen I've ever met.

"Enough chitchat, Juno convoy needs a new route, the enemy detonated the bridge," Sarge cuts them off, "There's a river pass further north. It's heavily guarded but if we take that, Juno convoy has a clear route."

"Argh, I'm sick of this walking, damn tank traps," Sweetwater complains, but trudges on anyways.

"Why don't we get a big ol' monster truck or something, Truckasauros Rex," She grins at him, "It would beat the hell outta those Imps."

"I really don't know how to respond to that Haggard but hey," he points at a vehicle coming up the road, "Looks like we found one."

It's an Imperial half track so we crawl into the bushes. Mikey snipes the passenger and Haggard latches onto the driver's side. "Boo!" She says, before opening the door, dragging him out, and putting a bullet through his head.

It was probably a supply vehicle coming from the village as the back was completely empty. We pile in and head towards the village

"Enemy light tank!" Sarge shouts. The three of us in the rear duck down. It passes by without issue, probably thinking we were their allies. It doesn't take us much longer to reach the village pass, "We're charging in!" Sarge shouts and Sweetwater sets his light machine gun up on top and starts blasting away the men guarding the road. At the same time, Mikey snipes the machine gunner un in the tower.

The village is in chaos as Imperial soldiers mobilize. An imperial light tank was rolling towards us and we bailed of of the half track as it slammed into the light tank. We split up and took shelter in houses, emptying bullets into any imperial soldiers caught off-guard by our sudden appearance.

An anti-tank lance was fired by Haggard, destroying the light tank. "Hell yeah!" came a shout of victory from her before she leapt off the roof of the house a medium tank from across the river blasted where she was.

I made my way around the edge, crawling in the tall grass and picking off any unfortunate souls I could with my rifle. I couldn't see the others but I could hear Haggard laughing like a maniac so I could assume that she was definitely still alive.

"Area clear! Clear the river! Juno company's almost here! Hold down the fort until they arrive" I could hear Sarge order. We regroup at the river bank and I take hold of a mounted machine gun, firing at the Imperials in the river. Mikey is takes out the soldiers in the towers and Sweetwater comes up behind me.

"Medium tank inbound!" Sarge shouts at me, "Get down!" Sweetwater and I dive to the ground as a tank shell whistles above us and destroys the machine gun and the house behind us.

At that instant, I hear Haggard screaming, "Hey look! That's Juno convoy!" I peek over the edge just in time to see one of our tanks destroy the Imperial light tank. "Woo! God bless high explosives!" She cheers.

"Regroup!" I hear Sarge shout again as a truck pulls up behind us. Haggard is driving it and Sarge in the passenger seat as usual with Mikey in the back. After exchanging some greetings with the commander of Juno Convoy, Mikey relays some orders from the radio.

"Alright, there's a ammo stockpile further East. We're going to scout it and clear out any hostiles," he explains. All these missions are starting to sound like suicide missions to me. I know I said I wanted some action before but not like this.

The trip was going to take a while so Haggard starts talking. "So new guy," she starts, "So I'm guessing you're wondering how two lovely ladies and two nice guys like us got into Bad Company, right?"

"Hmph," Sarge snorts, "I bet he won't be wondering for long."

"Well," Sweetwater starts talking. Sarge was right, he really does like to talk, "Haggard here blew up the biggest ammo dump this side of the Atlantic. I myself, _accidentally_, got a hold of some top secret orders. I haven't asked Mikey yet and, as for the Sarge, well, why don't you guys tell us why you're here."

"I made a deal," Sarge explains, "They agreed to cut my term short if I transferred here."

"Only problem is B-company has the highest mortality rate in the army," Sweetwater continues. No surprise there. I haven't even been here for a day and I've already gone on two suicide missions, "So Sarge here is really playing long odds."

"Heh," Sarge laughs, "I've only got three more days. Then I'm going fishin' and you can have this war all to yourselves."

"So, we'll pretty much be playing it safe from here on," Sweetwater finishes, "So how did you two land in here?"

"I kicked my superior officer in the balls after he tried to grope me," Mikey answered, a look of disdain on her face. This girl really didn't take shit from anyone. She was pretty cute though so I could see why. Haggard and she were both cute but Haggard. Well, Haggard was Haggard, "He got me transferred here for revenge."

"Ouch well, I'm... sorry about that," Sweetwater said awkwardly before turning to me. I don't know what he did to get slapped but damn did he look guilty right now, "How about you new guy?"

"Well, there was this thin about this jeep and... I don't really want to get into it," I try to get away with that but they don't let me, "Fine fine. I took General Von Damon's personal car out for a spin and totaled it, almost started a way with Gallia. Satisfied?"

"Wait?" Sarge asks, "_That_ Von Damon? What the hell were you doing in Gallia?"

"I was never actually in Gallia," I explain, "My squad was supposed to guard the general when he was visiting the Federation. He was a total ass and I chauffeured him everywhere. Got sick of him and took his car out in the middle of the night and got hit by a truck. Almost died."

"That's awesome," Haggard laughs heartily, "You got some serious balls new guy." The others are laughing too, even Mikey. I flush red a bit in embarrassment.

Sarge stops laughing and shouts another order, "Look alive fellas, we're approaching the target."

* * *

><p>AN: Still mostly the same as the BC storyline. There probably won't be much derivation until they start finding gold.


	3. Operation: Gold Rush

Chapter 3

Operation: Gold Rush

* * *

><p>"Hey, new guy," Haggard slides by me as bullets whizz overhead, "Wanna lend me five bucks?" She readies her lance and peeks over the edge, ducking just in time to avoid a bullet.<p>

"Is now really the time!" I shout at her in panic, lobbing a grenade overhead, hearing Imperials scream as they scrambled out of cover and into Sweetwater's machine gun fire. The Imperials were going down just as easily as before but this time there was a sniper wearing all black camping at a tower in the back that was giving us quite a bit of trouble.

"Don't lend him any money," Sweetwater shouts from across the road, behind some sandbags, "She's expecting you to die so she doesn't have to pay you back."

"I figure if I can get five bucks from a hundred rookies, I'll have..." She counts on her fingers but gives up, "Quite a bit of money towards the Haggard retirement fund."

"Maybe you should use that money to improve your math skills," Sweetwater jokes, deflecting a rock from Haggard with his helmet.

"Shut up you two,"Sarge barks, "The Imperials have been cleared out, suppress the sniper for Mikey!" Haggard drops her lance for an Imperial submachine gun and I do the same with my rifle. We spray bullets at the tower as Mikey takes aim and fires.

The soldier ducks down and dives off the tower. "He dove into a truck!" Mikey shouts, scrambling back behind cover.

"After that son of a bitch!" Haggard yells gleefully like the maniac she is and breaks away from cover, rushing towards the nearest building towards the truck.

At that moment, a rather large, blue beam obliterates one of the houses and demolishes everything in its path, right through where Mikey was sitting just a moment earlier.

"Holy shit!"

"What the hell was that!"

"Your doom Federation dogs!" I hear a voice boom from the location of the sniper. I peek my head out from cover and see him standing on the truck bed, wearing a large, rectangular mechanical object on his arm. Behind him is a large ragnite generator that the contraption was hooked up to. "Behold, the latest in Legionnaire technology, a psuedo-valkyrian lance, with the power to obliterate tanks with a single blast. It is your sad misfortune to face me, the great-"

His speech was cut off by a large explosion. The ragnite generator is blown to bits and Haggard marches into view, smoking lance in hand. "Geez, this guy talks even more than Sweetwater."

"That was certainly anticlimatic," Mikey gets out of cover and glances around, looking for any more Imperials.

"Wait, did he say he was a Legionnaire?" Sweetwater asks, heading over to the body.

"Legionnaires? I thought those were just old spook stories," Haggard asks curiously.

"Nah, he's real, and this one's definitely one of his mercenaries," Sweetwater explained, examining the body, "Now look at this. Acta Non Verba." He's pointing at a red symbol on the mercenary's chest.

"That Spanish or something?" Haggard asks again.

"No you idiot," Sweetwater smacks Haggard lightly on the head, "It's Latin, means action, not words, the Legionnaire's motto. The man's got his own damn mercenary army, some say the deadliest in the world."

"And yo motto should be Verba non Acta," Sarge quips, "Cuz you never shut the hell up." Mikey giggled, making Sweetwater blush a bit. "Let's get outta here."

"Y-you should listen Sarge," Sweetwater stutters. Haggard, Sarge, and Mikey are already heading away, "Knowledge is power. For example, rumor says that he always pays in gold bars."

I could literally see Haggard's eyes turn into cash as she turns around and shuffles to the mercenary's body, "I-I'll just check for a pulse in his pockets." She shuffles through the mercenary's body before procuring a bar of gold the size of her thumb, "Well slap me hard and call me El Dorado."

"Alright El Dorado, lemme see that," Sweetwater grabs for it and they struggle a bit before Sarge snatches it away.

And that's how it started. We found this... little piece of gold. To people with less moral fiber, that might have posed a problem. But we're all men and women of duty. So, when the sergeant said the gold belonged to the army, we all agreed and got back to work.

But, with the Federation being _so_ busy with the war and all, _and_ the gold bar being so small, we thought it was best of we... held onto it for them, splitting it five ways. Not that... everyone was happy with that arrangement.

"Well, maybe you can't buy a whole Jeep but you can start with the tires and build from there," Sweetwater joked at Haggard.

"Shut your trap Sweetwater-" Haggard started to say as the truck arrived back at camp.

* * *

><p>Finally, my first day in B-Company was over. I had already been thrown into three suicide missions and somehow managed to survive them all. We opted to keep quiet about the Legionnaire so we didn't have to explain anything... extra... But that also meant that we weren't going to reveal anything about that blue beam of death.<p>

As I sat in my bunk, I ate the first hot meal I had all day. Hardtack and meat stew. Certainly beat beef jerky, energy tablets, and crackers though. About that time, Sweetwater came in and sat across from me.

"Say Marlowe," he began. Oh? He didn't call me new guy? Must be something important then, "What do you think Miss Michelle would like to do on a weekend off?"

"Miss Michelle?" I say aloud,trying to think about who that would refer to, and then it clicked into my head, "Oh, Mikey?" Sweetwater nods, so I guess I'm right, "I didn't realize that we got weekends off during wartime."

"Oh, we don't," he sighs, "But the war's gotta end sooner or later, right?"

"Why are you so focused on her though?" I ask, "Why not Haggard?"

He does a spit take and sprays stew over my face. "Sorry about that," he hands me a handkerchief to wipe my face with, "Haggard's good looking and all but... well..."

"She's a sociopathic maniac?" I fill in the blank for him. He nods.

"Yeah, she's totally nuts. I'm more afraid that she's going to accidentally kill me than the enemy will. Mikey on the other hand, she's got a lovely voice and a spunky attitude, I like that in a girl."

"Is that so?" I muse, drinking some more stew. Love in the army? Well, there was certainly a large number of women on the front lines here, and more than enough men. Certainly some of them would be thinking of romance, "I don't have much experience personally, but maybe an amusement park or something?"

"Yeah, that's a great idea, thanks Marlowe," his face lights up.

"By the way," I ask, "How did a guy like you end up in the army anyways?" He was certainly good at doing what he did but his personality didn't quite seem to fit his actions.

"Well," he began," As you can tell, I'm more the type of guy to hide in a cave til the conflict blows over than hide in a trench." I nod, he certainly did, not that I ever actually saw him run away. "I was in college for a bit, but then I realized I couldn't pay for it much longer, so I joined the army, hoping to make some cash to pay for the rest of my education. I worked as a radio operator, never thought I'd see combat until that incident with the secret orders."

"What orders were those?"

"I'm not supposed to tell you, top secret after all."

"Alright, I guess..." I'm a little disappointed but I realize that I probably shouldn't press him.

"How'd you get in the army?" He's asking me now, "You seem awfully straight-laced but we already know why you're in B-Company."

"Oh," I explain, "My dad was in the first Europa war and my Grandfather was in an earlier conflict. I just kinda, continued the family tradition I guess..." I think back to when I saw my dad come back from the war. Probably the happiest day in my life at the time. "I have a little brother too, he's fourteen, joined the army a month ago. Works supply lines far behind friendly lines. Not like his sorry older brother who got chucked right here."

"I see," Sweetwater nods, "I guess that makes sense. Anyways, nice talking to you Marlowe," he gets up and starts heading out the tent, "Oh, and good job surviving your first day."

I laugh at that and he laughs too. Maybe Bad Company wasn't so bad after all.

* * *

><p>The next day changed my mind drastically. I lay on my back, panting for air. We wee sent into a village near the border of the Italian peninsula. Mantua was a couple dozen miles south of us. It was swarming with Legionnaire mercenaries and was probably the hardest fought battle I got into. The others seem to agree as they look as exhausted as ever.<p>

"Goddamn Legionnaires, they're everywhere," I spurt out. Dead bodies littered the town and the smoking hulls of two light tanks could be seen. As I catch my breath and look up to see Haggard facing me, I see a surviving mercenary start to get up and aim a rifle at her. Acting purely on instinct, I whip out my pistol and land a bullet straight between his eyes. Before yesterday, I had never killed anyone in my life. But now, after only a day, I was could kill just as easily as these guys. Am I turning into a sociopath? Nah, I'm just too concerned with not getting myself killed to worry about the moral implications of my own actions.

Haggard spun around just in time to see the Imperial die. "Nice job new guy," she grins at me, "Can I call you Preston now?"

"Only if he can call you Gena," Sweetwater answers as he regroups with us and Sarge.

"Nobody calls me that anymore," Haggard answers, "I prefer Haggard anyways, suits me."

"Haggard's not your real name?" Mikey asks curiously.

"What? No," she replies in disbelief, "What the hell kind of parents name their daughter Haggard?"

"I thought it was your last name or something," I suggest as a possible explanation.

"Nah, Preston," she handwaves the suggestions, "Darcsens don't have last names. They call me Haggard cuz I always looked so haggard during training camp."

"Shut up you two, there's a truck moving down there," Sarge points over the hill.

"Looks like a civvie truck to me," Haggard clambers over the hill to get a better view.

"What the hell kind of civvie still hangs around here? This is where the fighting's hardest, anyone that lived here is long gone by now," Sarge snaps at her. Well, that explains why I haven't seen any civilians at all during my time out here.

"Hey, it dropped something shiny..." Mikey spied through her scope. Almost by the time Mikey looked up from her scope, Haggard reached the aforementioned shiny thing.

"It's gold!" She holds up to the sun. the yellow glint of the medal shines in our eyes for an instand before she slides it into her breast pocket, "You thinkin' what I'm thinking?"

"That we go after this truck for the gold? How are we supposed to explain that to our superiors?" Mikey asks. Certainly that posed a bit of a problem. We couldn't exactly just wander off without a good excuse.

"Well," Sarge cooks up an idea, "We could just say that we are inspecting a potential threat in the form of an unmarked truck..."

"Then what are we waiting for?" Haggard drives up in a truck, it's window was smashed open. When the hell did she grab that? "There's gold in them thar hills!"

* * *

><p>AN: Huzzah for minor story divergence! I've decided that the story will, for the most part, very loosely follow the Bad Company storyline. There's going to be a couple of significant changes and events though that I have planned out. Some more serious that others. Anyways, review and subscribe if you like it. Or just review if you don't.


	4. Operation: Invasion

Chapter 4

Operation: Invasion

* * *

><p>"HQ wants to know where we are," Mikey piped up.<p>

"Damn if I know, Sweetwater got us lost," Haggard angrily answered, glaring at Sweetwater who was in the back of the truck, examining a map.

"I know what I'm doin, this is a shortcut," Sweetwater replied confidentially.

"_You know what you're doin, you know what you're doing,_" Haggard mocked him, "If I had a penny for every time you said that, I wouldn't be needin this gold."

"Just tell them what I told you," Sarge told Mikey, "That we're inspecting a potential threat."

Mikey relayed the information and we continued on our merry way.

"There's the truck!" Sweetwater shouted excitedly, spotting the vehicle we had been tailing, or at least trying to tail, "I told you this was a shortcut."

"Shut up you morons," Sarge barked, "Kill the engine, we're going around and spying by foot."

"Why?" Haggard asked.

"Because, you idiot," Sarge explained, "That's a border checkpoint into Italy, a neutral country. We don't have clearance there."

"And the Legionnaires do? That just ain't fair," She retorted, actually speeding the truck we were riding up.

"Haggard, you idiot, what are you doing!" Sarge yelled as they barreled towards the checkpoint.

"Woohoo! Gold!" She laughed maniacally, going as fast as the truck would let her.

"She won't listen to reason when she's like this, you just gotta force her!" Sweetwater dragged himself forward. While Mikey and I were hanging on for dear life, he reached over and twisted the steering wheel. Sarge slapped his foot on the brake but it was too late.

The truck spun wildly out of control and the border patrol dove out of the way before the vehicle smashed into a house.

Thankfully, the truck had slowed down enough for me to survive. It did, however, crush one of the border guards. The others started firing at us so, of course, we fire back. And by we, I mean Haggard first.

So, Haggard had pretty much singlehandedly invaded a neutral country. Not the best move. There were only four or so of them so it didn't take her long to finish but Sarge looked furious.

"Haggard!" He screamed at her, "Is this your idea of fun!"

"Well," she answered, not looking really all that guilty, "Yeah."

"May I ask you why?" Sarge wasn't screaming anymore but he still looked plenty angry.

"The gold, didn't you see it?" She tried to appeal to him, "I mean, Sweetwater could never swallow a piece that big."

"Shut it Gena," Ohh boy, he used her real name. Guess Sarge really is furious. Not that I blame him, "Now give me one good reason why I shouldn't ship yo ass off to jail."

"Well, because... you love me Sarge," Wait, what? "Like an uncle loves a niece." She quickly corrected herself, realizing the awkwardness her first phrase created.

"Uhh... Sarge?" Mikey called out for him, the radio earpiece against her head., "HQ wants to know whats going on the Italian border and why they have a report that five people resembling us just destroyed the border checkpoint."

Sarge glared hard at Haggard and sighed, "Tell them that it was my call, we had to, you know, to investigate a hostile. You know, a threat."

"How did they even know we were here?" I ask, looking around.

"Probably that," Sweetwater points to the dead body of a border guard holding onto the remains of a radio.

"They're telling us to just head back to base now," she repeated the order back.

"That's fine, I was planning on going fishing anyways," Sarge looked his usual stoic self now.

"I don't think you'll be getting to go home anytime soon Sarge," Mikey replied, "We're facing court martial, your term of duty will be extended at least nine to twelve months."

"Shhhhhhhhhit," Sarge swore, storming away furiously.

"That was bad, that was bad wasn't it," Haggard finally showed some real sign of guilt.

"It's bad Gena, bad as anything we've ever done," Sweetwater started talking, "Anything you've done, it's as bad as that."

"Not like the ammo dump I blew up."

"No, no, worse."

"No way!" Haggard looked like she was blaming herself for what she had done. Guess she wasn't a complete maniac. Then again, it was entirely her fault to begin with.

"Ok, ok, lemme think," Sarge wandered back.

"So," I ask, "Where does this leave us?"

"We're here, ain't we?" Sarge asks nobody in particular.

"What?" Sweetwater pipes up. He sees this going exactly where I see it going, "Oh no, no Sarge, You can't be serious!."

"Yes I am," he answered, "Now where'd that truck go?"

"What?" Haggard had a smile on her face again, "You wanna go after the gold?"

"I'll never get any medal from the army, now will I?" He glares at Haggard again and a look of discomfort shows on her face.

"The truck was headed that way," Mikey pointed down one of the forks. Sarge started heading over in that direction.

"You guys comin or what?" Haggard motioned for us to follow. She was all smiles again.

"I-I-I'm not sure that this is happenin for the right reasons," Sweetwater stuttered.

"Gold Sweets," Haggard grinned excitedly at him, "Twenty Four Carats. What kinda motivation do ya need?"

"What do you think Miss Michelle?" He turned a desperate plea to the one rational female in the squad.

"Between facing court martial and jail time against the chances of striking it rich, I'll take my chances," Looks like she weighed out her options rather quickly.

"Preston?" The plea turned to me now.

"Hell, I guess I could use a couple million, same as anyone else," I admit, not really feeling opposed to what we were planning on doing. I follow after the other down the road, leaving Sweetwater behind to weigh his options again.

"Augh," I hear him grunt after about a second of thought, "Guys, wait up!"

* * *

><p>So there we were. Five AWOL Federation soldiers charging into what was now enemy territory for the sake of gold and glory. We raid the border checkpoint for ammunition and supplies and ditch our uniforms for civilian clothes. Sarge, Sweetwater and I just dress in typical workers clothes, brown pants and white shirts. Sarge refuses to abandon his patrol cap though, saying it's a part of who he is, and I found a nice leather jacket that I won from Sweetwater in a game of rock, paper, scissors. Haggard is also dressed similarly, of course she would, but Mikey is actually wearing feminine clothes. A black skirt that reached her knees, white button-down shirt, and a black jacket.<p>

Mikey's listening on the radio. We didn't abandon it because we wanted to be able to track Federation movements in the area. Undoubtedly they would be trying to capture us, or, more realistically, they wouldn't even bother. After all, we were Bravo One Charlie of Bad Company. We were expendable.

"We've been on the road for two days already Sweets," Haggard complained as she took the stolen truck through a moderately busy port city. We were deep in Italy now, our weapons were in the back, hidden by a tarp. We were all sitting in our usual places, Mikey still listening to the radio, Sweetwater staring at the map, and me just going through our supplies. We only had about a day's worth of rations left.

"Trust me, the truck had to have gone here," I don't know what makes him feel certain of himself but his directions hadn't failed us yet.

Well, it hadn't failed me yet. The others obviously didn't fail the same way. "_Trust me, trust me,_" Haggard mocked, grumbling under her breath.

A patrol of Italian soldiers wandered by, as did what looked to me legionnaire mercenaries. The soldiers glared at the mercenaries and just continued on their way.

The first legionnaire's we'd seen in a while. The locals didn't seem to like them much so...

I tapped Sarge and pointed at the two armed groups and he nodded. "Pull the truck over a moment," he ordered Haggard who complied. Sarge called out to one of pedestrians, "Hey, you there." The man looked dumbfounded for a moment, looked around a bit before pointing to himself with a quizzical look on his face, "Yeah you, get yo ass over here."

Sarge got out and they two of them talked for a while. The more and more disturbed look on Sarge's face worried me. When he came back, he explained the situation.

"Basically," he started, "You see that cliffside villa up there?" He pointed to a rather large, well decorated and well kept building up on the overlooking a cliff to the sea below. We nodded. "The princess of Italy is there, her father hired these mercenaries before the war began since their own army doesn't have enough men. She's taken control after the old man died and has been bringing more and more of these mercs into the country. The people don't like it much and neither does the army here. Chances are, the Legionnaire's base of operations is up in that villa. If we want to get the gold, we gotta go up there."

"You're kidding me," Sweetwater groaned. It certainly did look hopeless.

"Remember Sweetwater, we're AWOL and we're technically at war with this country," Sarge reminded him.

"So you're telling us to go with it anyways?" Mikey asked, she looked to be on the fence about our current situation.

"Princess? Legionnaire's? Who cares? I want me some gold," Haggard was grinning maniacally.

"What I'm saying," Sarge explaining, "Is that if we want our gold, we're going to have to assault that mansion. And since the Federation's declared us AWOL and no longer with them, the only thing we would be risking is our lives."

"I dunno about you Sarge but I kinda like my life," Sweetwater was obviously quite against this.

"Oh?" This time it was Mikey talking, "You _like_ being a war criminal wanted across the entire continent with no money, no resources, and no hope for safety anywhere?"

"Well... no but... Marlowe, what do you think?" Once again, Sweetwater looked to me for some sort of confirmation that he wasn't alone.

"When I got transferred here," I began, "I promised my little brother that I would lay low and not cause any trouble." Sweetwater's smile was full of hope and it looked like he was about to say something, sorry to disappoint you Sweetwater. "But," I continued, "I've already gone on a wild goose chase and invaded another country, been cut off by the Federation, and hung out to dry. The only real hope I have left is that gold. I mean, bad decisions lead to great stories, right?"

"Mmhm," Sarge agreed, "So Sweetwater, you with us or not?"

"Argh," Sweetwater looked absolutely torn, "Fine! let's go."

* * *

><p>AN: I don't like the title of this fanfic. Help me think of something better than 'The Federation's Bad Company'. Also, I have no idea what that country that resembles Italy on VC is actually called so I'm just calling it Italy because naming it something weird just doesn't seem right to me.


	5. Operation: Warm Welcome

Chapter 5

Operation: Warm Welcome

A/N: Normally I don't attribute music to anything but, if you were wondering (doubtful), I was listening to this on loop while writing this. .com/watch?v=dhdEy9SRWYk

* * *

><p>"Delivery for the Princess?" I could hear one of the gate guards ask. Sarge was driving the truck now, Sweetwater in the passenger seat. Haggard, Mikey, and I were in the back, the entire part covered by a tap, hiding us. Haggard was a Darcsen which might have caused some unnecessary trouble and Mikey was a teenage girl, which might have been more than a little suspicious. I've never been much of an actor and, besides, I lost to Sweetwater in this round of rock, paper, scissors.<p>

"Alright, we'll just need to check the rear," I could hear the other state. We bid our time and waited for the signal.

"A, D, H," Sweetwater said aloud. We divided each side and the rear of the truck bed into eight parts. The letters corresponded to each of those parts as where the guards would go.

"What?" I heard on of the guards say. I was sitting between D and E of the rear and drew my trench knife. It was my father's from the last war, he handed it to me when I joined the army. In an instant, it sunk through the bottom of his mouth, past his tongue, through the roof of his mouth and into his brain. I dragged him into the tarp and waited. We were supposed to leave one of them alive and it turns out Mikey was the one to do it.

Sarge got out of the car and pinned the mercenary's arms and covered his mouth. Haggard and I disposed of the two bodies in the bushes. The night gave us sufficient cover and the faint Ragnite lamps were not enough to reveal us. "Now tell them it's clear or we kill you, got it?" The mercenary nodded furiously and Sarge released his mouth.

"Intruder alert! Intr-!" Sarge sliced his throat open and dropped the body. It looked like these mercenaries weren't afraid to die. No wonder they were called the best in the world. And now us five army rejects were taking them on on their home base?

"Outta the way!" Haggard pulled off the tarp and picked up her lance, planting it on the roof of the truck as sirens blazed throughout the villa. Sarge jumped back into the driver's seat and hit the gas pedal as hard as he could. Haggard pulled the trigger and blew the wrought iron gates clear open and Sarge charged through.

"Plans stay the same!" He yelled, swerving as I held on for dear life. I handed Sweetwater my carbine and tried to take out as many legionnaire guards as I could. Haggard reloaded and blew a hole right through the front doors of the mansion. "We kidnap the princess and hold her hostage, grab the gold and get the hell out!" Originally, we weren't going to wreak havoc until _after_ we 'delivered' the package.

The truck skidded as it entered the mansion and Sarge slammed on the brakes. It spun and slid along the marble floor, turning two hundred and seventy degrees and sliding nearly twenty meters before coming to a halt. I dragged Mikey out as she through up and took cover behind a marble pillar, leaving Sarge and Mikey behind the car. Sweetwater and Haggard had flipped over a stone table and were using that as legionnaires moved from cover to cover to try to get to us.

Mikey looked confused for a moment and picked up the radio, listening in. Why was she doing that? "It's a distress call!" She shouted towards the rest of us and bullets whizzed all around.

"If anything, we're the ones needing a distress call," Sweetwater shouted back.

"Really?" Haggard asked, "I think we're doing great!"

"Shut the hell up you two," Sarge ordered,, "Less chitchat, more shooting. You too Mikey, Sweetwater is right, we have out own problems to worry about."

"You don't understand," Mikey was still listening to the radio, "I-I think it's the princess. She's being held her against her will. She's asking for the Federation to send in an extraction team."

"Then she ain't getting no extraction," Sarge ducked down, a bullet ripping his patrol cap off, "Cuz we the only team around here and we ain't here to extract her, we here to get us some gold."

"There's a Federation warship a few miles out, they agreed to send in a rescue unit," Mikey shouted.

"Oh shit!" Sarge yells, "Then we need to get this shit done as fast as possible if we don't want our asses dragged back for a court martial. Where is the princess?"

"She's in the safe house, basement level 1," Mikey relayed, before the radio was shot through.

She picked up her sniper rifle just in time for her to punch a bullet through the helmet of an armored machine gunner.

"Move towards the stairs!" Sarge shouted and we made out way there. Sweetwater and Mikey were holding back the mercenaries that were coming from the entrance as Haggard, Sarge, and I cleared out the ones coming in from the stairs.

We slowly made our way down. I actually ended up running out of magazines and dropped my carbine in favor of a Legionnaire submachinegun. Haggard picked up a shotgun and Sarge just changed his carbine for another.

It took us nearly twenty minutes to make it down a single flight of stairs but we did it. And the mercenaries coming at us from Sweetwater and Mikey's end were moving away, back to the entrance.

Sweetwater took point and cleared the hallway of mercenaries. It was a long, straight hallway with no cover apart from the saferoom we were trying to reach. But that was bolted shut. Best mercenaries in the world or not, every single one was torn to ribbons from Sweetwater's machine gun fire.

Well, every one but one.

A woman stood at the entrance at the far side. She was a dark-haired beauty, long hair tied up in a high ponytail, taller than me, finely proportioned, and wielding nothing but a rapier.

But then a blue aura enveloped her body, as if she was set alight by a bright blue flame. Her dark hair turned bright white and her eyes turned a glowing red. And then she charged at us.

"Look alive men, she's an an enemy!" Sarge yelled at us. But it wasn't enough. She closed the fifty meters between us in an instant, thrusting her blade at Mikey as she loosed off a round. She dodged the bullet and pressed forwards, aiming right at Mikey's heart.

But Sweetwater wasn't about to let that happen. He pushed her aside and the rapier went through his upper arm. Haggard, Sarge, and I were next to act. Haggard fired off a shot from the shotgun before tossing it away. There wasn't enough time to reload.

I drew my trench knife, as did Sarge and we engaged her directly. She was fast, way too fast to be a human. But, between the three of us, Haggard joining in with her own blade, we managed to keep her at bay. She landed a few cuts on us, though mostly shallow. But we couldn't land a blow on her at all.

Haggard, being the reckless idiot she was, charged right at her. She reached for the blade with her left and and it pierced through. But she didn't stop there, she pressed forwards and her hand moved down the blade until she grabbed the guard. With her armed hand, she tried stabbing the blazing blue warrior directly but she caught Haggard's wrist easily. Haggard dropped her knife and twisted her arm around, grabbing our attacker.

I saw this as my opportunity, I dove right at her, aiming my blade at her neck. She moved Haggard in my way and I hit the ground, sliding along the smooth floor and throwing my blade at her. She tried to move out of the way. But Haggard screamed at her, "Oh no you don'!" Locking her in place as best she could. She left go of her rapier and moved, the blade missed, shattering against the stone ceiling. The shards bounded off, one of them leaving a gash on her face. A face as smooth as porcelain. Funny how I can still admire her beauty while she's trying to kill us.

"Margaret!" An imposing, shaven man with pale skin stood at the other end of the hallway, "Leave them, we have more... important things to do."

"Yes sir!" Her body, still surrounded in a blue aura approached Haggard who tried to scuttle back but the swordswoman grabbed the hilt of the the blade and ripped it out. As a testament to Haggard's own strength, she let out a small yelp and nothing more. The blood on her cut cheek dripped down her face. She touched it and looked at the blood, glaring at me.

We did nothing as she passed the rest of us and made her way back to the male. When they left, I dropped my fists, which I didn't even realize I had up and breathed a sigh of relief.

Until she came back. At the end of the hallway, she was there again, the blue flame surrounding her body bigger and brighter than before. A thin, white lance in her hand. It began spinning and gathering the blue aura around her and reminded me of something... something...

"Shit!" I yelled, "Up the stairs! Now!" I dashed up the stairs, dragging Haggard with me. Mikey did the same for Sweetwater and Sarge helping us both support our injured squadmates. The beam hit the far side of the wall, making it and extremely close call as the soles of my feet were burned off b the intense fire and the cuffs of my pants caught fire. I quickly put it out and we sat their, waiting. We could hear the sounds of battle going on outside but the only sounds we were paying attention to were the sounds of her fading footsteps.

Mikey jumped down the stairs, sniper rifle in hand and glaring down the scope for an instant before motioning that it was clear. We made our way to the saferoom door and knocked on it twice.

"Who's there!" Came a voice. It was clearly shouting but it was so quiet. Just how thick was this door?

"Your Federation extraction team your highness!" Sarge yelled back. The door opened and we saw a young women, maybe about as old as Haggard. She took one look at us and immediately tried to close the door.

Nope. I stuck the butt of my borrowed submachinegun in the way so she couldn't. That door looked really heavy, at least half a foot of solid steel.

"Hey, we came all the way here for you and you just try to slam the door in our faces?" Sweetwater asked, "Is that the thanks we get for bustin our asses to get here?"

"You're the five psychopaths that attacked this place," she tried pushing the door shut, but Sarge and I just forced it open. "And I find it hard to believe that three dumb looking men, a little girl, and a Darcsen really took out all those legionnaires," She grabbed a tennis racket laying nearby and held it in front of her, as some sort of self defense, "This is all probably a ploy by Kirilenko for me to surrender my country's secrets to him."

"Your country's secrets?" I asked, genuinely curious, but Haggard would have none of that. There was one thing and one thing only that she was here for.

"Look here missy," She pushed her way to the front, "I don't give a damn about no secrets, I had my hand stabbed through by a psychotic, hair-color changing, red-eyed, demon bitch who can light herself on fire. I just want to know where the damn gold is!"

"Wait, you fought Margaret?" She asked in disbelief, "And you're still alive?"

"Hell yea we did," Sweetwater was the one to push himself forwards now. "And we have the injuries to show it!" he pointed at his injured arm and Haggard's hand which Mikey was bandaging.

Meanwhile, I took a moment to look around the room. It was well furnished, and there was a periscope I the middle of it. It seemed to lead to the floor above. Probably how she knew that we were 'those five psychopaths'. There was even a hot tub and a tennis court in here. Safe house? More like tiny resort. Royalty sure knew how to hide like, well, royalty.

"Enough about yo goddamn injuries," Sarge pushed the two of them aside, "The gold, the legionnaire's gold, where is it!"

"What? His gold? That's what your af-" She started to ask when suddenly, three Federation marines burst into the saferoom, guns pointed at us.

"Freeze! Drop you weapons and put your hands above your heads!" one of the ordered.

"Yeah? You and what army?" Haggard asked.

"You and what army... Are you out of your mind Hags?" Sweetwater hissed at him, " Why would you say that? These are the Federation marines!"

"I just always wanted to say that."

"Why?"

"Sounds cool, thought maybe it'd shut em up."

And then ten more of them came in. "Oh," Haggard put her shotgun down and raised her hands, "That army."

"Ah, my _real_ extraction team is here," The princess walked to them and two of the marines escorted her out, "Toodles, you psychos."

"Say goodbye to the gold," Mikey followed suit.

"So... I wonder what prison's gonna be like," Sweetwater quipped, having done the same much earlier.

"I don't wanna go to jail," Mikey looked like she was about to cry.

"I hear the food's good," Haggard answered enthusiastically.

"I have a feeling the food's gonna be the least of our problems, dropping the soap is what I'm worried about," Sweetwater shot back.

"I hate that, it's all mushy and you can't get a good grip, slips through your-" Haggard began before she got cut off by Sarge.

"You three just shut up," he ordered, and we fell silent, waiting for the marines to take them back to the Federation.

* * *

><p>AN: Alright, finally stuff that's defines the Valkyria Chronicle universe as the VC universe. A valkyrur shows up and chaos is everywhere. I should probably try to give Mikey a more distinct personality though.

Anyways, review and add to your story alerts if you like it. Criticize and don't add if you don't.


End file.
